Monday - hills and beaches

A leisurely start before a relaxing day. Time to enjoy the lovely place we are staying in!

We drove up to a look out point above Ahipara first thing. We could see isolated showers blowing in over the sea, which was the situation for most of the day.

The view in both directions was pretty amazing, and we could see the group of houses in which we are staying.

We then drove down to Shipwreck Bay, just at the end of Ahipara, and the last beach on the Ninety Mile beach.      The evidence of the shipwreck was pretty small, one lump of metal sticking up out of the sand looking a bit like a lonely periscope.

It is possible to drive round the headland at low tide, helped by the flat section of rock, reinforced by the locals with cement in places. It's mainly for the fishermen and surfers, but we enjoyed the walk.

After a while we enjoyed a snack whilst watching the surfers and gannets. Much to my surprise I managed to take a photo of a gannet diving into the sea after a fish.

By the time we walked back the tide was far enough out for us to see the remants of the ship wrecked vessel, and for Mick to demonstrate his ability to walk on water!

Leaving Ahipara we stopped at Kauri Kingdom for a bite of lunch, and to walk up the staircase which is carved out of a single tree trunk of swamp Kauri. The stump is 11.5m in girth, and very beautiful. These swamp Kauri are 25 to 40 thousand years old, preserved in the swamps around the area.

After lunch we drove to the Karikari peninsular and walked up Puheke, an old volcano close to the beach. A hard walk up, but luckily not too long.

More wonderful views of beautiful, deserted beaches!

Final stop of the day was further round the peninsular at Maitai Bay where it is possible to stand in one spot and see two separate bays. You can just see them in this photo, one on either side of the headland.

Then it was back to the bach, picking up supplies en route.  For the first time we have a good oven and baking dishes, so I was able to cook a lasagne for the first time in nearly 3 months.  And we had another nice sunset!